Of Two Minds, Both Empty

Today, CHS channels Austrian Cargo Cult dogma and calls for a flat tax regime, blinded by the fact that tax policy is not really about collecting taxes but about allocating how savings and surplus are allocate between gambling (i.e., "investing" in secondary financial markets) and entrepreneurship (i.e., directly investing in U.S. businesses).

That's the reason, Chuck, that income taxes collected don't change much as a percentage of GDP: taxes are more a means than an ends.

If you think you were the first to discover that obvious fact, you're wrong.

And, believe it or not, tax policy can actually improve GDP growth if it rewards domestic entrepreneurship and discourages the gambling known as "investing" in the secondary stock and bond markets.  If, instead of encouraging domestic corporations to offshore profits through tax policy, you encourage them to invest profits domestically, you can get a great result.  If you make it such that shifting operations overseas will cost corporations money, they won't do it.

Really sad.